Several payment bitcoin services blocked in the Russian Federation by decision of the regional court

Roskomnadzor has blocked the online exchangers NiceChange, ALFAtop, Bitokk, payment crypto service BTC Phone and the blog about cryptocurrencies ProstoCoin, based on the decision of the court of the Arkhangelsk region.

According to the document, on February 4, the Nyandomsky District Court decided to restrict access to the listed sites on the territory of the Russian Federation due to the spread of “prohibited information about the cryptocurrency Bitcoin”.

The owner of the BTC Phone resource said that his site provides mobile phone top-up services with bitcoins and is not an information resource:

“I would not say that this is a project that bringssome tangible profit, but since regular users appeared there, the project is supported. On average, user activity is not more than 20-30 top-ups per day. ”

The plaintiff's claims to the ProstoCoin editorial office concerned one page, but ILV blocked the entire resource.

“The reason was the information posted onpage with a list of businesses that accept Bitcoin in the Russian Federation for payment. Although only one page should be blocked, the entire site was blocked. At the moment, the page has already been deleted, ”said representatives of the portal.

They also noted that the domain registrar prostocoin.com is NameCheap Inc, located outside the Russian Federation:

“No warnings came to the hoster or registrar.”

Judgment refers to federal law“On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation”, which prohibits the introduction into circulation in the country of monetary units other than the ruble and the issue of monetary surrogates. Bitcoin, in the court’s opinion, is “a virtual means of payment and accumulation, not secured by real value and not containing information about its holders”.

“The process of issuing and circulating bitcoins in fullit is decentralized and there is no possibility of its regulation, including by the state, and cryptocurrency does not require special reporting documentation. In such circumstances, cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, are monetary substitutes, contribute to the growth of the shadow economy and cannot be used by citizens and legal entities on the territory of the Russian Federation, ” - indicated in the court decision.

The owner of the BTC Phone service intends to unite with representatives of other blocked sites and appeal the decision of the court of the Arkhangelsk region.

Earlier, Roskomnadzor blocked the forum of the bits.media cryptocurrency news portal on the basis of a decision of the Federal Tax Service of 2017.